Underground Operations Building

An underground Operations building was built at Coffs Harbour in New South Wales in about 1943 to house No. 12 Operational Base Unit RAAF. After about 1980, the bunker was abandoned and was trashed. In 1984 the area where the bunker is located was designated as City Hill and the bunker was under serious threat of demolition.

The Rotary Club of Coffs Harbour recognised the heritage value of the bunker and it was converted into a gallery to house the Coffs Harbour Cartoon Collection, which is the largest contemporary collection of original cartoons in Australia. The Coffs Harbour Rotary Club started an annual cartoon competition in 1989.

The Bunker Cartoon Gallery changes its main cartoon display every few months. There are approximately 10,000 cartoons in their collection. The Bunker Cartoon Gallery has a Gallery administrator who is assisted by a team of about 30 volunteers. In January 2003 was Margaret Bridgman was the Gallery administrator.

The Bunker Cartoon Gallery (Ph. 02 - 6651 7343) is open every day from 10am to 4pm except Christmas Day and Good Friday. Take the airport turnoff from the Pacific Highway. It is located opposite the Coffs Harbour racecourse.

The following is part of a document showing the status of semi-underground buildings in Australia by November 1943:-

COPY ONLY

Original on 171 56/1

this copy for 171/1/1493

UTILIZATION OF SEMI-UNDERGROUND BUILDINGS

D.A.S.P.

Herewith is list of above buildings as requested in your minute dated 29th November, 1943.

signed W/Crd.
Richmond.
for G/Capt.
D.W.B.

2/12/43

(a) COMPLETED AND IN USE

Building Details

Drawing No.

Locality Plan

Drawing No.

COFFS HARBOUR, N.S.W.

Operations Building
Transmitting " (less air
conditioning)

42/43/1571

41/42/2682

(R.S. 1053
(
(R.S. 1053

Bunkers that were built using the same Drawing Nos. as Coffs Harbour were as follows:-

COMPLETED AND IN USE
Mallacoota, VIC
Mohuya, NSW

COMPLETED BUT NOT IN USE
Albany, WA

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Lowood, QLD
Camden, NSW
Pearce, WA

Can anyone tell me if any of these bunkers are still in existance?

The following photos are of the Lowood Underground Operations Room in Queensland which was built to the same plans as the Coffs Harbour bunker.

	The Lowood Underground Operations Room. Photo taken on 31 December 2000. The bunker is very long with a semi-circular roof still partly buried. Photo taken looking towards the old Lowood airfield
	Front view of the Lowood Underground Operations Room

The above photos are about 2 pages wide when opened
Please cursor to the right to see the full width of the bunker ---->>

Heaps of WW2
books available at
Amazon.com

"Australia @ War"

Disclaimer

Click here to E-Mail me
any information or photographs

"Australia @ War"
Available on a Data DVD

Peter Dunn's
AUSTRALIA @ WAR
WWW.OZATWAR.COM

Do you need a holiday!
Sun, surf, beautiful beaches and lots more!

Genealogy Software
190 Mbytes of Genealogy Indexes & Programs